[Vision2020] Sarah Palin

[Jeff Harkins]

Interesting perspectives to say the least.  And 
when you compare Palin's executive experience to 
that of Obama, that would make Obama even less qualified.

 From Project Vote Smart, one can get a glimpse into Obama's voting record.

 From their data sheets, it is interesting to 
note Obama's voting as a Senator on key 
legislation (initial passage and final conf. reports)

For the period beginning January 2005 to present

Not voting or not present       228
Voting Yes or No                340
Total votes                     568

Obama was not present or did not vote on 40% of these bills

I understand his performance as a state 
legislator was equally non participatory.

Not exactly an endorsement of his leadership.

Project Vote Smart also provides links to the 
actual bills.  As I peruse the bills, I will post interesting findings.

For example, in the category of Agricultural 
Issues, over his term he has not voted on 6 of 
the 7 bills in the set. On health issues, he 
chose to not vote on 20 of the 30 bills in that 
set. On education, he did not vote on 6 of the 11 
items in the set. On the federal budget, he did 
not vote on 48 of the 89 bills in the set.  On 
the environment, he did not vote on14 of the 22 items in the set.

No doubt there will be patterns or threads that can be gleaned.

On the other hand, it appears that Palin has 
achieved more change in two years in AK as 
governor than Obama has in his entire career.

Are either of them qualified to be running for 
president. Probably not the best choices. But 
only one of them is.  It is unlikely he will get my vote.

At 10:20 AM 8/31/2008, you wrote:
>
>Scholars question Palin credentials
>
>David Mark, Fred Barbash Sat Aug 30, 12:24 PM ET
>
>John McCain was aiming to make history with his 
>pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and historians say he succeeded.
>
>Presidential scholars say she appears to be the 
>least experienced, least credentialed person to 
>join a major-party ticket in the modern era.
>
>So unconventional was McCain’s choice that it 
>left students of the presidency literally 
>“stunned,” in the words of Joel Goldstein, a 
>St. Louis University law professor and scholar 
>of the vice presidency. “Being governor of a 
>small state for less than two years is not 
>consistent with the normal criteria for 
>determining who’s of presidential caliber,” said Goldstein.
>
>“I think she is the most inexperienced person 
>on a major party ticket in modern history,” 
>said presidential historian Matthew Dallek.
>
>That includes Spiro T. Agnew, Richard Nixon’s 
>first vice president, who was governor of a 
>medium-sized state, Maryland, for two years, and 
>before that, executive of suburban Baltimore 
>County, the expansive jurisdiction that borders 
>and exceeds in population the city of Baltimore.
>
>It also includes George H.W. Bush’s vice 
>president, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, who had 
>served in the House and Senate for 12 years 
>before taking office. And it also includes New 
>York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, who served three 
>terms in the House before Walter Mondale chose 
>her in 1984 as the first woman candidate on a major party ticket.
>
>“It would be one thing if she had only been 
>governor for a year and a half, but prior to 
>that she had not had major experience in public 
>life,” said Dallek of Palin. “The fact that 
>he would have to go to somebody who is clearly 
>unqualified to be president makes Obama look like an elder statesman.”
>
>And Alaska is a much smaller state than 
>Illinois, the political base of Barack Obama, 
>whom Republicans have repeatedly criticized for 
>being inexperienced, having served nearly four 
>years in the U.S. Senate after eight in the Illinois state Senate.
>
>“Not to belittle Alaska, but it’s different 
>than the basket of issues you deal with in big, 
>dynamic states.” Dallek said.
>
>Palin has no experience in national office. 
>Before becoming governor in December 2006, she 
>served as a council member and mayor of Wasilla, 
>Alaska, which had a population of slightly more 
>than 5,000 during her time in office.
>
>Brad Blakeman, who ran the 1988 Republican 
>convention for GOP nominee George H.W. Bush, 
>turned the experience question on its head, 
>suggesting accomplishments in office mean more than time accrued.
>
>“Here’s a governor who may have served two 
>years, but her accomplishments are worth 
>eight,” said Blakeman, citing Palin's work as 
>governor on ethics reform and an Alaska oil 
>pipeline. “She’s got as much experience for 
>being vice president as Barack does to be president.”
>
>But other students of presidential history said 
>that In choosing Palin as his running mate, 
>McCain has reached back to a time when few 
>actually seriously contended that the vice 
>president should be demonstrably prepared to 
>assume the presidency from day one.
>
>If elected vice president, Palin would appear to 
>have the least amount of experience in federal 
>office or as a governor since John W. Kern, 
>Democrat William Jennings Bryan’s 1908 running 
>mate, who had served for four years in the 
>Indiana state Senate and then four more as city 
>solicitor of Indianapolis. The Democratic ticket 
>lost to Republican standard bearer William 
>Howard Taft and running mate James S. Sherman by 
>an Electoral College spread of 321-162.
>
>More conventionally in modern times, running 
>mates could boast decades of experience in 
>Washington, from ballot box winners like Dick 
>Cheney, Al Gore, the elder Bush and Mondale to 
>also-rans such as Jack Kemp, Lloyd Bentsen and Joseph I. Lieberman.
>
>These super-credentialed candidates were 
>sometimes chosen, like Joe Biden, to shore up 
>the resumes of candidates with little or no time 
>in Washington, such as Jimmy Carter (Mondale) 
>Bill Clinton (Gore) and Michael Dukakis (Bentsen.)
>Palin, on the other hand, is a total “wild 
>card,” said Stanford historian David Kennedy.
>
>“If she had been around for two terms as 
>governor — or been a senator — it would have 
>been an incredible choice,” said historian 
>Doris Kearns Goodwin. “Who else could he have 
>found who appealed to the conservative base 
 
>and as someone who was a reformer?”
>€
>
>That’s not to say Palin will be a dud on the 
>campaign trail. But out-of-the-box picks in 
>recent years have not usually worked out too 
>well for the top of the ticket. Consider 
>independent candidate Ross Perot’s 1992 
>running mate, former Navy Adm. James Stockdale, 
>who famously asked at the vice presidential 
>debate with Gore and Quayle, “Who am I, why am I here?”
>
>“He took the wind out of Perot’s sails, and 
>Perot could have done even better” than the 19 
>percent he garnered, Dallek said.
>
>A bad running mate pick can even put a 
>successful presidential ticket in question. The 
>1988 Bush-Quayle victory over Dukakis and 
>Bentsen came in spite of Quayle’s frequent 
>campaign trail gaffes and questions about his 
>military service in the Vietnam era and other 
>controversies. Bush handlers largely relegated 
>Quayle to small town audiences that would attract little media attention.
>
>“Quayle — it threw off the momentum for some 
>weeks,” said Goodwin. “One has to hope for 
>McCain’s sake that [Palin] has been fully vetted.”
>“The first thing that hits me,” said Stephen 
>Hess of the Brookings Institution," is that it 
>suggests that John McCain is a gambler. This is a high roller decision.”
>
>“The next thing you have to ask yourself: Is 
>it worrisome to have a gambler in the Oval 
>Office? That’s an important question," he 
>said, “perhaps more important than anything else today.”
>
>
>
>=======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>=======================================================